Dr. Richard E. Brown

University Research Professor,
Killam Professor
Psychology

Richard Brown was born in Victoria B.C., Canada and graduated from the University of Victoria with a first class honours degree in Psychology in 1970. He completed his MSc in animal behaviour at Dalhousie University in 1972 and his PhD in comparative and physiological psychology at Dalhousie University in 1975 and spent the next two years as a post-doctoral fellow in the Animal Behaviour Research Group at the University of Oxford in England.

He returned to Dalhousie to begin teaching in 1978. From 1989-96 he was Chairman of the Psychology Department. He has taught courses in Hormones and Behaviour, Drugs and Behaviour, Olfaction and Behaviour and the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

He has edited the two-volume book Social Odours in Mammals (Oxford University Press, 1985) with David MacDonald and written a textbook, An Introduction to Neuroendocrinology (Cambridge University Press, 1994) and has a research program on genetics and behaviour of inbred and mutant mice. He and Peter Milner were instrumental in having Donald O. Hebb's book The Organization of Behaviour reprinted by Erlbaum in 2002.

Dr. Brown's lab is funded for work in behavioural neuroscience. Current projects include: Animal models of Alzheimers Disease; Behavioural analysis of transgenic and mutant mice; the JAX Phenome Project which involves involves behavioural phenotyping for differences in anxiety, locomotor behaviour and spatial learning in 14 strains of mice; psychopharmacology and behavioural development in rodents; Methylphenidate and behaviour; olfactory communication and olfactory learning; and parental behaviour in rodents.

Alzheimer's Disease research using mice

Richard E. Brown, BSc (Victoria), MSc (Dal), PhD (Dal)

Highlights
The Brown laboratory is funded for work in behavioural neuroscience. The lab is currently working on six general projects, including animal models of Alzheimer's Disease, the behavioural test battery to study transgenic mice and studies of olfactory learning.

Background

• 1970, BSc (Honours) University of Victoria
• 1972, MSc in Animal Behavior, Dalhousie University
• 1975, PhD in comparative and physiological psychology, Dalhousie
• 1989-96, Chair, Department of Psychology, Dalhousie
• 2002, Killam Professor

Published

• Edited two-volume book Social Odours in Mammals (Oxford University Press, 1985) with David MacDonald
• Wrote An Introduction to Neuroendocrinology (Cambridge University Press, 1994)

Mentored

• Research assistants Jackie Benedict, Nikki Hoffman, Andrew Johnston
• PhD student Aimee Wong
• MSc student Timothy O'Leary
• Undergraduate students Jennifer Covey, Mary-Elyn Keenan, Ashley Whittaker
  

Committees/boards

• Member, Dalhousie University Neuroscience Institute
• Director, Dalhousie University Neuroscience Institute, 1996-99.
  

Website: The Brown lab

E-mail: Dr. Richard E. Brown